The Black Wolves hit the Knighthawks with a six-goal barrage in the third quarter, including one from Kevin White just as time expired, to pull away to a 17-7 victory before 4,004.

And if that goal wasn't pretty enough, Jamie Lincoln offered a blind, over-the-shoulder shot for a goal late in the fourth quarter that made it 14-6 with 6:12 left and was a fitting exclamation point.

Kevin Crowley added two goals after that and led the Black Wolves with six goals and four assists, while goalie Evan Kirk, who was already the top goalie in the league coming in after allowing eight goals in the season opener last week, was outstanding again with 37 saves.

"It's a nice win," Kirk said. "It's one game. Any given night, any team can win. They're a team that starts off slow then puts the pieces together when it comes down to the wire. They're known for doing that. You can never take that as we're a better team. We just had a better night."

Jordan Hall, who played with Philadelphia last season, and Cory Vitarelli paced the Knighthawks with two goals apiece. Matt Vinc had a busy night in goal, facing 50 shots.

New England has a bye next week and hosts Minnesota on Jan. 24.

"It was a big game, a big test for us," Black Wolves coach Blane Harrison said. "We don't know how good we are, didn't know how good we are, and we still have a long ways to go. I'm not organizing any parades now, but it certainly is a real good barometer to come in and play a team like this and play a full 60 minutes, and I think that was probably the key. We really focused on conditioning, and in the fourth quarter, I think that kind of carried us through."

The Black Wolves outscored the Knighthawks 5-1 in the final period and 6-2 in the third after holding a 6-4 lead at halftime. At no time in the game did the Black Wolves trail, and at no time did they look threatened.

"They won three years in a row for a reason, and a lot of it is because of their defense," said forward Kyle Buchanan who had three goals and six assists for New England. "We had a game plan going in, and [the goals] fell for us early, which was huge. We kind of got on a roll, and we said to each other in the first quarter we need to keep that pace up, and we did a good job in moving the ball and moving their goalie."

The teams got into a minor postgame tussle that didn't amount to much. It ended with the music coordinator throwing on the old tune by War, "Why Can't We Be Friends?"

The DJ was a trip.

The second quarter started with excitement — a fight between Rochester's Scott Campbell and New England's Brian Magill, resulting in their both being hit with five-minute fighting penalties. Campbell got another two minutes for roughing.

The theme from "Rocky" followed — "Gonna Fly Now."

The Black Wolves used the tussle as momentum. Crowley stung the net twice shortly afterward, but Rochester added two more goals later in the quarter.

So New England had a 6-4 lead at the break on the strength of Crowley's three goals but also good defense led by Kirk, who turned away 18 of the Knighthawks' 22 attempts in the first 30 minutes. New England took 29 shots at Vinc by then, a sign of things to come, especially with Crowley operating in the middle of the offense.

"I try to draw, get into my guy a little bit and have them come over and help and free up the other guys," the 6-foot 4 Crowley said. "But it's also when I'm in the middle, these guys are looking for me. Kyle Buchanan, our whole offense. they're finding me with the ball, and that was huge for me. It helps me out to do all the hard work in the middle and get a great pass. It went my way tonight, I would say."

Kevin Buchanan (no relation to Kyle) had two goals and seven assists and Pat Saunders had three goals for the Black Wolves.